Testing Theories of Reciprocity: Do Motivations Matter?

Luca Stanca, Luigino Bruni () and Luca Corazzini

Abstract: One of the key issues for understanding reciprocity is how agents evaluate the kindness of an action. In this paper we investigate experimentally the hypothesis that the motivation driving an action is relevant for its perceived kindness and, as a consequence, for reciprocal behavior. In particular, we examine the hypothesis that, for a given distributional outcome, positive reciprocity is less strong in response to strategically motivated actions than to non-strategically motivated actions. Our results indicate that, both at the aggregate and the individual level, reciprocity is significantly stronger when strategic motivations can be ruled out. These findings suggest that intentions matter and, in particular, that models of intention-based reciprocity should take into account the nature of the motivations behind choices.

Keywords: Reciprocity; Motivations; Laboratory Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-05-03
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00693819
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (64)

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2009, 71 (2), pp.233. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2009.04.009⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Testing theories of reciprocity: Do motivations matter? (2009)
Working Paper: Testing Theories of Reciprocity: Do Motivations Matter? (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00693819

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2009.04.009

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